An Ode To Soyinkaresque.part 59

Building on the previous themes, here are three additional sonnets. These focus on the ritualistic tragedy of his most famous play and the acerbic, late-career maximalism of his newest novel.

Sonnet IV: The Horseman’s Halted Transit

The "threnodic essence" stirs the ritual dust,

Where Elesin treads the "transitionary gulf,"

Bound by the "praise-singer’s" eulogizing trust,

To shed the skin of self for the collective wolf.

But the "district commissioner" with a blind, white hand,

Arrests the "metaphysical arc" mid-flight,

A colonial logic that cannot understand

The "blood-bond" that secures the cosmic night.

The son returns, a "sacrificial seed" in place,

To mend the "severed link" his father tore,

As "Yoruba tradition" and modern grace

Collide in a "cataclysmic" and ancient war.

The drum’s "incantatory" pulse begins to fade,

Where "duty and desire" are in ruin laid.

Sonnet V: Chronicles of the "Happiest" Waste

In the "land of the happiest," a "muscular" rot,

Where "human parts" are bartered in the nave,

A "satiric" tapestry where the truth is caught,

In the "dexterous" hands of the pious and the knave.

"Papa Davina" brews a "theocratic" lie,

While "Duyole" seeks a "healing" through the gloom,

A "maximalist" portrait of a nation’s cry,

Where "political/religious" shadows loom.

The "syntax is a labyrinth" of biting wit,

Exposing "cynical" souls in a "breezy" gale,

Where "pompous teachers" and "military grit"

Are "caricatures" within this "festering" tale.

The Nobel sage, with "silvered hair" and "rage,"

Decries the "moral decay" of the current age.

Sonnet VI: The Archetypal Prisoner (Ulysses in the Crypt)

He dons the "mask of Joseph" in the "limestone cell,"

An "archetype of martyrdom" in a "shuttle's" flight,

Where "solitary echoes" build a "private hell,"

Against the "tyrannical" and "internecine" night.

"Gulliver" among the "Lilliputians" of the state,

"Ulysses" charting "mental landscapes" in the dark,

He "must set forth at dawn" to challenge fate,

And find within the "marrow" a "creative spark".

From "Aké’s guavas" to the "Gazan crypt" he roams,

A "restless bolt of energy" that "won’t be stilled,"

He builds "indestructible" and "poetic homes,"

Where "human dignity" is by "logic" willed.

The "man died" not, though the "man died" in chains,

For the "lexical fire" of the "shuttle" remains.

We treat more sonnets exploring his earlier plays like The Lion and the Jewel or his autobiographical works such as Aké: The Years of Childhood.